Blogging has become one of the most popular public relations and content marketing tools. In 2014, 555.7 million blog posts were created on WordPress alone. Tumblr hosts 248 million blogs. PR and marketing writers dedicate much of their time writing and marketing blog posts for corporate blogs. Most everyone in PR and marketing are convinced of the immediate value of blogging. But do blog posts continue attracting views over the long term? How long do they live?
Under the generally accepted measurement view, a blog post has a lifespan of 30 days. However, a study commissioned by IZEA Inc. and carried out by Halverson Group contends that the lifespan of a post is nearly 24 times longer than that. The lifespan of a post, or how long it receives impressions, is actually about two years, it finds. Not until day 700 does a typical blog post receive 99 percent of its total impressions.
The study, “The Lifetime Value of a Blog Post,” shows that measurement practices are imprecise and that standard metrics significantly under-value the performance of blog posts. Posts in corporate blogs including content marketing posts, it seems, are annuities that provide long-term benefits.
Three Phases of Life
A post goes through three phrases, according to IZEA.
Shout. In the shout phrase, a blog post receives an initial spike in impressions. The first week to ten days generates about 50 percent of a blog post’s impressions.
Echo. The echo phase lasts until day 30 at which time blog posts accumulate 72 percent of their impressions.
Reverberate. The third, and likely least studied, phase is the reverberate phase. This phase makes up the 28 percent of remaining impressions and lasts from day 30-700. The reverberate phase is important for both content creators and marketers as that is where the long tail value occurs. It is also the phase that most blog post impression metrics fail to quantify.
How to Determine a Post’s Lifetime Value
The IZEA/Halverson study also finds what it calls a new metric for calculating the lifetime value of a blog post. To calculate the value, simply multiply the post’s page views after one month by 1.4. “This metric allows for a foundational accurate lifetime impression number, which other formulas and metrics can be based upon,” the report states.
“Marketers have consistently shared how important it is to consider the lifetime value of a blog post,” says Ryan Rasmussen, study lead and senior director at The Halverson Group. “Unlike other forms of more traditional media, blog posts have an innate permanence that contributes value to marketers well beyond their initial posting.”
To reach its conclusions, the Halverson Group evaluated 62,863 blog posts generated between August 2010 and February 2012, and from there randomly selected a quantitative sample of 500 unique blog posts.
A Range of Lifespans
Of course, the lifespan of a blog post depends on the specific blog, the quality of the post, its topic, and content marketing efforts. Posts with instruction and/or insights/viewpoint can be expected to last longer than newsy blog posts that contain more transient information. Quality evergreen posts continue attracting views for years; news-focused articles have much shorter lives. An analysis by Parse.ly, which examined a couple of hundred media publishers that use its data, found that online news articles have a median lifespan of 2.6 days. It defined lifespan as the point where the article reached 90 percent of its page views.
Articles with above average traffic coming from social media referral sources had lifespans that lasted about 14 hours longer.
Bottom Line: New research found that blog posts have longer lifespans that previously believed. They continue to attract views and generate marketing and PR value for months and sometimes even years. Although different studies have produced different findings and blog post lifespans vary based on a range of factors, the study points out the long-term value of blogging and content marketing. It also emphasizes the importance of following best practices regarding SEO, content marketing and social media marketing to get them most long-term value from blog posts.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
